On our way to Meteora we took a side road to Kir-Yianni winery in the mountains overlooking a beautiful valley and their vineyard. We took a tour of their up-to-date winery where they explained which grape they grew and fermented and how they are striving to be the best in Greece. We were served lunch on a balcony overlooking their vineyard, the mountains, and the valley. The lunch and wine were excellent.
Meteora is unique in many ways with the towering and gigantic rocks and monasteries built on their summits like eagles nests. There are...

We are being pleasantly surprised by things we see and learn about around every corner.
Day two saw us busing south to Mount Olympus, the mythical home of the ancient Greek gods and home of the Olympics. There is little remaining except ruins, nothing to indicate how important this place was in 350 BC. We hiked near the foot of the mountain, the location of the Olympic Games of long, long ago. We spent time exploring the site of Dion, the sacred city of the Macedonians. There was nothing standing, but one could imagine what an impressive...

Our introduction to Greece was with our arrival at our hotel in Thessaloniki at 12:30 am Monday morning. Our trip over was good, on schedule, and no hassle.
Our day began with breakfast at 7:30 and a get-acquainted orientation meeting at 8:30.
Thessaloniki is a Greek port city on the Thematic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. Evidence of Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman history remains, especially around Ano Poli, the upper town.
We boarded a bus that took us down to the waterfront, passed the White Tower of Thessaloniki to the statue of Alexander...

Once again the drive was easy and the border crossing a little slow but at least we had reached Greece where our target was the monastery town of Meteora after a short stop in the very pretty lakeside village of Kastoria.
The big highlight of the trip was a bear sighting made by eagle-eyed Gilli. Unlike earlier 'mythical whale sightings' she got this one spot-on and we were all glued on the grassy fields for more. Signs advised we were in bear country but we saw no more. We're still not certain if the one we did see was 3 or 5 or maybe 10...

We easily took our bus from the Kalampaka bus station to Trikala, changed buses with only about an hour of waiting time, and then continued on our journey into Thessaloniki. Our primary reason for being there was to board a plane to Cyprus, so we booked an airbnb near the airport. We really struggled with public transport in Greece. There's a lot of it around, but it just doesn't show up on our phones, Rome 2 Rio, Google maps, or any of the usual ways we get around in Europe. Therefore, we found it a bit challenging to get from the KTEL...

The four hour drive to Thessaloniki flew by mainly because we took a brilliant highway with a small toll section and were almost alone for the entire distance.
The roads both in Macedonia and Greece were generally excellent and our border crossing was effortless.
Hectic traffic in Thessaloniki made up for the quiet drive but our hotel choice proved to be a reasonable sanctuary. Like most cities, Thessaloniki was a little untidy but did have some really great areas. Once again the waterfront was the pick along with some wide, pedestrian...

Today we opted to relax. We woke late and went to explore the Roman Agora from 1 B. C. It was interesting as the odeum-- at the time an indoor theater, is intact although it is now outdoors. The bath house is also visible. There is a small museum that explains the life of the people living there, the shops, and the history. Parts of the agora were in use until the 1400's. We went also to see Galerias's rotunda which became a Christian Church in 4 AD and a mosque in the 14th century after the Ottomans invaded.
After we found the local market...

Today was fun! We walked past several early churches, both Christian and Muslim. We passed a hammam. We went up the street to see a small Christian church with beautiful gardens. As a service was in progress we just took a peek inside...plain but with beautiful chandeliers. We stopped to take pics of Galerias's triumphal arch and his rotunda. We walked down past a hippodrome that had been burried beneath a boulevard. Unfortunately exploring it was not possible as it was closed. As was the Hagia Sofia. So we went on to the waterfront and the...

Oh my gosh.....have I already overused "amazing"? I'm sorry, but today was SOOOO amazing (this is not the last time I'm going to say amazing). Yesterday Barb, Peggy and I took a 5-hr bus trip (3 buses actually) to Meteora, an amazing place north of Athens, where there are these immense rock towers - five with still active monasteries at the top, other towers have ruins of monasteries. When we arrived in Kalabaka, the town at the base of the huge rocks, it was raining. Peggy said "well, maybe it will let up by tomorrow..." at which instant...

Today is the day that Peg, Lorraine and Barb got out of Dodge (Nafplio). I love our house in Nafplio. Once I got familiar with the city and could make my way to the grocery store and bus stop, knowing that I could find my way home and the 65 steps to our front door, the city is a delight to explore. But, there is so much to see in Greece. It’s a constant pull and I have to resolve that I will not see everything that I came for. We had read about monasteries built in the rock formations in central Greece so today caught a bus for Athens (2...

We were in luck this morning as we awoke to cloudy but dry weather even though it had rained through the night. It was so lovely overnight and we slept with our balcony doors wide open.
Reasonably relaxed wake up this morning as the monasteries on the mountains do not open until 9am. Decent breakfast offering of the usual cereals, scrambled eggs and hams and plenty of Greek cakes and pastries and the most amazing yogurt ever. Have finally found something the Greeks have got right.
We were staying right at the base of the rocks so only a...

Pouring rain this morning and where is our umbrella? In the luggage that we checked which is supposedly at Athens airport as of the last check on line.
We stopped at the place where they make religious icons and learned the 3 processes they use. Everything done by hand on canvas, done by computer (seriography) on canvas and done on paper with a photo (lithography).
The ones by hand are drawn on canvas, then painted with natural paints(plants, rocks) going from dark colors to light colors, then gold leaf is applied around the icon. When...